Fred Smith. Prospect Town Hall. 30 Sep 2022
It’s only a year and a bit since the Taliban waltzed back into Kabul on the back of the ill-conceived, thinly veiled surrender by the US. Fred Smith was an officer with DFAT in the embassy in Kabul from 2020 until he was evacuated in May 2021 as the Taliban raced through the provincial capitals. An interim virtual embassy was then established in Doha. By the 15th of August, the Taliban controlled all but the Kabul International Airport (KIA) and Fred and a select few Aussies went back in on the 17th to return remaining Aussies and rescue as many Afghani collaborators and their families as possible. Perhaps you recall from your television viewing the heaving throngs in the withering sun behind the razor wire, or the young men clinging to an enormous American air transport whilst taxiing on the tarmac. Eventually, the US medical facility at the airport ceased operations, and consequently on the morning of the 26th, the Australian mission was evacuated. That very evening, an Islamic State suicide bomber detonated at the airport gate where the Australians had been working. 200 people were killed including 13 US Marines.
Fred was no stranger to Afghanistan. He was assigned with the diggers in the province of Uruzgan intermittently from 2009 to 2013. And that’s not the half of Fred. Besides a comfortable Canberran life with a wife and a kid and a career, Fred has an uncanny capability to diarise and entertain by performing his own music. While the US was busy spending US$2.6 trillion on Afghanistan, Fred has recorded thirteen albums of original songs based on his empathetic reaction to the cornucopia of human conditions he encountered on the job in Afghanistan, PNG, Bougainville, the US and at home. The Dust of Uruzgan is the title of both a book and a CD on the diggers, the Dutch and the doings during the ADF’s warfare in that Afghan province during his watch. Fred was the subject of an Australian Story episode in 2013 entitled, A Sapper’s Lullaby, a lamentation of the losses of ADF engineers charged with finding and defusing the deadly IEDs. Former ACT Australian of the Year, ABC presenter Virginia Haussegger, AM, called him a “Canberra treasure,” selling him far too short.
Sparrows of Kabul is a concert with a five-piece band, a slide show, and an insightful analysis of the Afghani story from the post-9/11 American invasion to the fall of Kabul – 21 years of hope, corruption, brutal conflict, and heartfelt encounters. With a backdrop of fetching still photos and moving images of war machinery, camaraderie, and the tension of patrols outside the wire, our guitar-toting diplomat is shown disarming his Afghani hosts and entertaining the troops with his bonhomie and heart-rending ballads, and he did so to us.
From the lines of a 17th Century poem shown on stage, Fred began the concert with his evocative and haunting song entitled, 1000 Splendid Suns, referring to Kabul’s womanhood hidden behind the endless compound walls. Jen Lush’s accompanying ethereal voice was transcendental. The first half of the show focusses on the Dust of Uruzgan years. Fred crafts beautiful songs garnered from his personal experiences of those he encountered. No doubt he yearns for the hit he deserves, like John Schumann’s I Was Only 19 - Schumann even attended out of respect for the passport stamping-singer-songwriter. Fred’s style wavers from trad folk to electric folk to rockabilly – all with memorable melodies and haunting lyrics.
After intermission, the concert with pictures focusses on the days of the evacuation one year ago. The Gates of KIA is an apology to his daughter for PTSD. Even a year later, Smith still gets messages via WhatsApp; cries for help from inside Afghanistan. There is a tender song for the people he couldn’t get out. Yet 4100 Afghanis were evacuated by the Australians and Fred was their angel. It’s not all beer and skittles – Fred reflects on the Brereton Report on potential unlawful killings. Sparrows of Kabul is also a hefty poem by Fred that he recited to remind us of the importance of poetry to the Afghanis. The insouciant birds flit amongst the debris only days after the bomb blasts. The concert was bookended with exquisite accompaniment by Jen Lush in Trembling Sky.
Fred’s band comprises the aforementioned heavenly vocalist, Jen Lush, Paul Angus on drums and keyboard, Mark Seddon on bass, and stimulating electric guitar work from Stevie Pederson, but he draws on local talent from wherever he plays.
Fred is also very active assisting the Afghani diaspora of refugees and its new citizens of Australia. The concert was opened with a message of thanks from the Afghani ambassador in Canberra read by Fahim Hashimy, a film maker and the artistic director of the upcoming 7th Ghan International Film Festival Adelaide – an event born in Adelaide and expanded to Sydney and Melbourne (29-30 October at the soon-to-be-closed-unless-you-do-something-about-it Mercury Cinema). Note: the ambassador is not Taliban - he represents the government-in-exile. Australia does not recognise the Taliban regime. Many members of the Afghan community were present including persons that Fred himself had processed and even worked with in Kabul.
Fred’s disarming style and dry humour, his musical and song-writing ability, and most of all, his unabashed openness to bog in, dance a jig, play the fool and give anything a go makes friends everywhere - he easily busts down the barrier of language, because music and fun are universal. While the concert is a high-quality musical event in its own right, the context Fred provides makes it a beautiful and poignant night of learning and reflecting. Nations do what they do, yet “the whiff of adrenaline,” as Fred phrases it, compels young men on all sides of conflict to take extraordinary risks and do regretful things. And still, behind the walls, are 1000 splendid suns. Double bravo!
PS Fred will reprise Sparrows of Kabul for the 2023 Adelaide Fringe 17-19 February at Star Theatre 2 on Sir Donald Bradman Drive, Hilton. Not to be missed!
David Grybowski
When: 29 to 30 Sep
Where: Prospect Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
